Dennis Sellers

<p>IBM has announced the first <a href="http://www.ibm.com/mobilefirst/">IBM MobileFirst for iOS</a> education app: IBM Watson Element for Educators, which enables a new level of engagement for teachers by providing a holistic view of each student at their fingertips, including data on interests, accomplishments, academic performance, attendance, behaviors and learning activities. </p>

<p>Kansas’ Shawnee Heights School District, working with Jamf IT management solutions, has gone from 100% Microsoft to mostly Apple products in the past five years. The district buys all its products instead of leasing them despite dealing with budget constraints (as most school systems do).</p>

<p>The LaCrosse School District — which has 6,800 students — has 9,400 Apple devices in use and incorporates Jamf solutions. What’s more, Longfellow Middle School is an Apple Distinguished School. </p>

<p>As noted today at the Jamf Nation User Conference, Jacobs Medical Center at UC San Diego Health — working with Jamf IT management solutions— will open new month and deploy a first-of-its-kind (and only one of its kind, in fact) patient care solution using iPads and Apple TVs (connected to a 60-inch TV).</p>

<p>At today’s Jamf Nation User Conference, Fletcher Previn, IBM vice president of Workplace as a Service, said that the company now has over 90,000 Macs deployed and that this number will pass 100,000 before the end of the year. (Last October the number was 30,000, so it’s obvious how quickly things are growing.)</p>

<p style="margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px">jamf Nation, hosted by Jamf, is the largest Apple IT management community in the world, got underway today in the beautiful city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. At the keynote, company CEO Dean Hager unveiled new branding and a (slightly tweaked) logo (pictured) for the company.</p>

<p>Apple has “drastically scaled” back its automotive project — dubbed “Project Titan” — “leading to hundreds of job cuts and a new direction that, for now, no longer includes building its own car,” reports <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-17/how-apple-scaled-back-its-titanic-plan-to-take-on-detroit" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bloomberg</a>, quoting unnamed “people familiar with the project.”</p>

<p>In a note to clients — as noted by <a target="_blank" href="https://9to5mac.com/2016/10/17/kgi-apple-to-benefit-from-samsung-note-7-recallcancellation-estimated-5-7-million-users-to-switch-to-iphone-7/" rel="noopener noreferrer">9to5Mac </a>— KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo estimates that 5-7 million Samsung smartphone users will switch to the iPhone 7 in lieu of the <a target="_blank" href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/blog/2016/10/11/samsung-officially-discontinues-the-galaxy-note-7-smartphone?rq=Galaxy%20Note%207" rel="noopener noreferrer">company’s debacle</a> with the Galaxy Note 7. </p>

<p>Apple CEO Tim Cook told the <a target="_blank" href="http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Apple-CEO-says-iPhone-s-future-is-in-AI" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nikkei Asian Revie</a>w that the company's upcoming research and development base in Yokohama, Japan will develop artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies. Cook described it as a center for "deep engineering." He said it will be "very different" from the R&D base Apple plans to build in China.</p>

<p>First of all, let me admit that I don't know if magnetic based accessories can harm an iPhone or iPad (though I kinda doubt they do). Since today’s review covers two such products you can read the pros and cons <a target="_blank" href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-magnets-really-affect-phones-hard-drives/" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.techwalla.com/articles/do-magnets-harm-the-iphone" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>. Go ahead and read; I’ll wait.</p>

<p>Have an emergency? Your Apple Watch can come to the rescue thanks to the SOS feature in watchOS 3. Unfortunately, this only works if your iPhone is nearby. If it is, you can call emergency services this way:</p>

<p>ATTO Technology has announced new <a target="_blank" href="https://www.attotech.com/products/thunderbolt-devices/thunderlink/thunderbolt3-to-40gbe/TLNQ-3401-D00" rel="noopener noreferrer">ThunderLink 3401 and 3402 devices</a>, allowing 40GbE connectivity from new Thunderbolt 3-enabled platforms to networks and storage while also providing backwards compatibility to Thunderbolt 2 devices and 10GbE infrastructures. </p>

<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.raindesigninc.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rain Design</a>’s mStand series now includes stands for the iPad. It’s available as the mStand tablet, mStand tablet plus and mStand tablet pro in pricing ranging from $29.90 to $69.90, depending on the size you need.</p>

<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.casper.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Casper </a>— a startup with a line of mattress, sheets, pillow, and dog bed products — is adding Apple Pay. </p>

<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.flosports.tv" rel="noopener noreferrer">FloSports</a> — a subscription-based streaming network of 12 sites focused on niche sports like track and field, volleyball and even Brazilian jiu-jitsu — has announced new apps available on the Apple TV and Roku platforms that will give consumers direct access to its live events, documentaries, studio shows, highlights and other original video content across its network of sites. </p>